Re: Teter Ross County Ohio connections

Thank you for the compliment. My website is a chance to practice what I learned with my communication degree (AA).

DNA projects do not offer tests. Testing companies do, for their own profit. An autosomal test costs twice as much as a Y-DNA test, when the latter is on sale.

The goal of the Teater-Teter Y-DNA project is to trace variations of those paternal surnames and to extend that line of the pedigree. An autosomal test would only be useful to someone who thought he or she was a Teter (or variant) relative within five or six generations but had a different surname, such as in an illegitimacy, adoption, or maternal descent. Such a person who hoped to prove a relationship with a previously Y-DNA tested Teter etc. could take the autosomal test, and the Y-DNA participant would need to take the autosomal test as well. The same money would buy four discounted Y-DNA tests. That is where money for the surname project needs to be spent.

See http://www.familytreedna.com/landing/family-finder.aspxhttp://www.familytreedna.com/landing/family-finder.aspx. From the Order Now link, this disclaimer appears: "** Due to the nature of autosomal DNA, the test does not specify from which branch of your family tree your matches or the percentages of your geographic heritage derive."

Ancestry is hinting about an expanded autosomal service, possibly linkable to their record collections, and GeneTree includes an autosomal option.

Those who want to spend their money buying two autosomal tests, one for themselves and one for the Y-DNA participant they believe is related, are welcome to do so on their own. They would still need to search original records to identify the specific people from whom those ethnicities were inherited, and their relationships. If original records are available, costly tests are not necessary; without original records, autosomal tests will not prove where the ethnicities came from, as made clear in FamilyTreeDNA's caution above.